As the first congressional hearing begins into Planned Parenthood’s practices with fetal tissue, pro-life groups are planning a Capitol Hill rally while a major reproductive health research group warns that shifting funds to community health centers will likely cause problems for low-income women.
The House Judiciary Committee is scheduled Wednesday to hear from two women who survived botched abortions against them as unborn children, a pro-life leader and a Yale Law School researcher on reproductive issues.
House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, and Rep. Trent Franks, Arizona Republican and chairman of the panel’s subcommittee on the Constitution and civil justice, are expected to lead the hearing — the first of a series into the “horrific abortion practices” of Planned Parenthood prompted by the release of nine undercover videos by the pro-life Center for Medical Progress.
Operatives with the nonprofit center, led by David Daleiden, spent months presenting themselves to Planned Parenthood and other officials as representatives of a new biotech company seeking to procure fetal tissue for researchers. They secretly videotaped their candid discussions and clinic visits with abortion officials and other biotech leaders.
While it is legal to obtain post-abortive fetal tissue for research, with consent from the woman, federal laws forbid the sale or “valuable consideration” of the tissue and prohibits “alteration of the timing, method, or procedures used to terminate the pregnancy” if they are done “solely for the purposes of obtaining the tissue.”
The center’s videos, which have been steadily released since July 14, appeared to show haggling over prices for body parts; fetal brains harvested from still-alive newborns; sloppy or coercive efforts to get a woman’s consent to donate her fetus; and give the impression that pregnant women are viewed as bearers of valuable fetal parts that can fill orders from biotech firms.
Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told Congress in an Aug. 27 letter that her organization “adheres to the highest standards and follows all laws,” makes patients’ health “our paramount concern” and is not heavily involved in the fetal research service — just 1 percent of its hundreds of health centers are involved with fetal tissue research.
It is Mr. Daleiden and his associates, she wrote, who “acted fraudulently and unethically — and perhaps illegally” to get the footage for their “doctored” and misleading videos.
Rep. John Conyers Jr., Michigan Democrat and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has joined other Democrats in calling for an end to the “one-sided” investigations of Planned Parenthood — and an investigation into the deceptive practices of the Center for Medical Progress.
“We have seen no credible evidence that the organization [Planned Parenthood] has done anything unlawful,” Mr. Conyers and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Maryland Democrat, wrote recently to Mr. Goodlatte and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Utah Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee.
On Tuesday, researchers with Guttmacher Institute said that although people are calling for Planned Parenthood’s $528 million in federal funding to be shifted to community health centers and hospitals, “credible evidence” suggests that that would not benefit many women.
Of the 6.7 million women who got “safety-net” care at family planning centers in 2010, 36 percent went to Planned Parenthood, researchers Jennifer Frost and Kinsey Hasstedt told the Congressional Budget Office in August.
Moreover, Planned Parenthood served more of these low-income women than local community health centers — plus offered women more types of birth control, more same-day appointments and shorter wait times, the Guttmacher researchers said.
Meanwhile, pro-life groups are planning a noon rally on Capitol Hill on Thursday to press their case that Congress should pass a budget that does not renew funding for Planned Parenthood.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican and presidential candidate, is scheduled to speak to the crowd assembled by Students for Life of America, Live Action, March for Life, Pro-Life Future, And Then There Were None, Americans United for Life, Heritage Action, Christian Defense Coalition, Stanton Health Care and Women for Quality Healthcare.
Other congressional committees investigating Planned Parenthood include the House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Senate Committee on the Judiciary. More than a dozen states are also looking into the issue, while Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire and Utah have elected to cancel or defund contracts with Planned Parenthood.
• Cheryl Wetzstein can be reached at cwetzstein@washingtontimes.com.
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